


Did You Eat?

by footinsink



Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/footinsink/pseuds/footinsink
Summary: Those three words.
Relationships: Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar
Comments: 23
Kudos: 222





	Did You Eat?

Devi and Ben are deep in the study zone at the kitchen table. Twin plates of korma and chapatti are cooling beside them, untouched.

Nalini Auntie walks in from the living room where she and Kamala have been watching _Badrinath Ki Dulhania_.  
  
“ _Kanna_ , Ben? What’s this? You haven’t touched your plates! How will you keep anything in those big brains of yours without proper nourishment?” Nalini Auntie fusses.

Nalini pulls up a chair between the two of them, breaks off a piece of chapatti from the round and deftly scoops up some korma.

Devi doesn’t even break eye contact with the laptop screen, just leans sideways so her mom can plop the morsel into her mouth, Nalini’s free hand cupped underneath.

Ben can only stare. It’s strange but also cute and he feels his heart tightening in his chest. He can’t remember his mom ever feeding him, period. Much less like this.

After a few morsels Devi waves her mom away.

“Feed Ben,” she says, typing furiously. Like it’s totes normal.

Apparently it is. Before Ben can make even a meager protest and without missing a beat, Nalini tears off another chapatti piece, scoops up more korma and turns to Ben.

Her eyes are soft. “Ao, beta,” Nalini Auntie smiles, and beckons with the morsel. _Come, child._

Ben parts his lips and leans forward, feeling shy and slightly ridiculous. Until Devi’s mom pops the bite into his mouth.

The flavor explodes on his tastebuds and his empty stomach rumbles agreeably. Ben chews and swallows gratefully.

Nalini Auntie is already waiting with another bite in anticipation. He eagerly accepts.

And so like this their plates are cleared in rapid succession, along with their work and the high, reedy tension in Ben’s shoulders.

Before long they’re down to the last morsel. 

Devi waves her mother’s hand away, like _for real this time_ but she’s smiling now, her face no longer tight with hunger. Ben politely demures because he can’t eat another bite, either.

Nalini Auntie shrugs and pops the last bite into her own mouth, pleased. She chews and swallows, then chases an errant splotch of korma at the base of her thumb.

She returns to the table after washing her hands, ostensibly to clear their plates but Ben leaps to his feet to intercept her before she does. Nalini Auntie presses her palm to his cheek in thanks, making a sound halfway between a cluck and a kiss; the gesture so motherly and warm Ben has to blink and swallow hard.

He will not, cannot cry in front of his — in front of Devi’s mom. Again.

He can barely live the beard thing down.

As Nalini returns to the living room Ben overhears Kamala say, “How wonderful, Auntie! He stuffs her in the trunk of his car but they still manage to live happily ever after!”

Ben places the plates on the counter above the Vishwakumar’s purely decorative dishwasher.

“Such a suck up,” Devi taunts, head bent over her phone on the table as he lathers their cut-in-half sponge with dish soap. There’s not a trace of malice in her voice.

Ben holds a soapy plate out and pretends to brush crumbs from her (admittedly hairless) arm, exaggerating the motion to such an extent you’d think she were a Wookie.

Devi pulls her arm away in mock affront, even as she effortlessly swipes up to her fourth TikTok video.

Ben smirks and turns back toward the sink.

It hits him then, that his stomach is not all that is full.

His heart is, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Badrinath Ki Dulhania is a Bollywood film starring Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. And yes, at one point he stuffs her in his truck ... but they live happily ever after.
> 
> Apologies for the smattering of Hindi. My Tamil is non-existent and after much google-fu I stuck with the South Asian language I do know. Had to add a dollop of the comforting language of my own childhood.
> 
> Title inspired by what our moms text and ask us all the time.


End file.
